Rye residents question outsourcing of park duties

11:37 PM,
Jan. 12, 2013

Workers plow the sand at Oakland Beach in Rye Town Park on Wednesday, as a woman walks her dog along the shoreline. Questions have arisen about how the park will be maintained this year after all three of the town's full-time park employees were cut from the budget.

Written by

Leah Rae

An effort to clip down the local tax bill through outsourcing is prompting some complaints about the upkeep of two treasured places, Crawford and Rye Town parks.

Rye town, which oversees both parks, eliminated all three full-timers on its parks staff in early December in a continued shift toward contracted labor. In response, Rye city resident Deirdre Curran posted a YouTube video Jan. 5 documenting problems she'd seen at Rye Town Park throughout the fall: nonworking sidewalk lamps, blocked access to the beach and lights left on inside public bathrooms - in a building that's locked until ...